VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has been asked to instruct the Competition Management Department to investigate the 3G fee hike by mobile service providers Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone starting from October 16.

According to the Government Office, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has required investigation into such a fee hike after the media continuously suggested that the fees were increased on the same day and by the same amounts, showing signs of collusion among the three providers who used their market domination to violate the Competition Law.

Therefore, the Government ordered that related authorities launch the probe, and take punitive sanctions against the three firms if evidence of violation can be established.

Meanwhile, responding to questions at an online dialogue last week about the 3G fee hike of these three giant providers accounting for 97% of the market share, deputy head of the Competition Management Department Tran Anh Son said that the department has not been able to say whether such acts violate the Competition Law or not.

The department has asked enterprises as well as the Ministry of Information and Communications to supply relevant information, he added.

Normally the department investigates independently and whether there are any violations or not will be decided by a specialized council via hearings. At hearings, there will be debates among investigated sides, investigation agencies and the council.

“If enterprises are found to have violated the law, the maximum fine can account for 10% of sales of the year before the violation is committed,” Son said.

At the online dialogue, representatives of the mobile service providers explained that they sought approval from the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority to increase 3G fees by different amounts. However, the authority asked them to explain some information before allowing them to increase the fees on October 4.

That is the reason why they announced a fee hike almost the same time, they said.

Nguyen Duc Trung, deputy director of the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority, explained that prevailing laws allow service providers to adjust fees based on three factors of the business costs, supply-demand balance and the average fees in the region.

As the service providers supplied evidence that they had been charging a fee lower than the cost, and that the fee had been lower than the global and regional levels, so they were permitted to raise the fee.

Source: SGT